Figures, a Clintonian stooge.
SAN QUENTIN – They chanted. They beat drums. They waved picket signs bearing the face of a black man who came very close Monday night to being put to death for the slayings of four people 20 years ago.
Hundreds gathered outside the gates of San Quentin State Prison to condemn the death penalty as unfair, biased and inhumane. And, in the end, they were heard.
When actor and death penalty opponent Mike Farrell announced to the crowd that the U.S. Supreme Court had refused to intervene, his words were met with thunderous applause.
"The state of California cannot execute Kevin Cooper," Farrell said. "Thank you for letting the governor know he was wrong."
Earlier in the week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to grant Cooper clemency, saying he was clearly guilty.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who met with Cooper on Death Row earlier in the day, thanked the crowd for such a strong showing.
"This is part of a struggle across a nation to remove a system with flaws," Jackson said. "With the help of some very good lawyers ... evidence emerged that the judge and jury never heard. ... I hope that we will in time find out who killed the family."
Cooper, 46, was convicted in the hacking deaths of four people in 1983 and was just hours away from being executed by lethal injection when the courts ruled.
"This case is everything that's wrong with the death penalty," said Michael Smith, a 24-year-old University of California, Berkeley student. "It's just so obvious that Kevin deserves a new trial. The death penalty is racist. It's biased against the poor."
Authorities in San Bernardino who prosecuted Cooper vehemently deny Cooper's claims that he was framed for the crime, and the California Attorney General's office is convinced that new tests will fail to cast any doubt on his guilt, a spokeswoman said Monday night.
Family members of the victims also are convinced Cooper was the killer, said Bill Hughes, whose son, Christopher, was among those slain. Hughes and his wife, Mary Ann, were inside the prison Monday night and couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
But he said lethal injection is justified. "I think it's justified. Particularly in this case, they were savage and brutal murders," Hughes said in a telephone interview late Sunday.
California Highway Patrol officers blocked traffic in both directions on Interstate 101 to allow about 200 protesters to cross the freeway. They met up with about 100 more at the prison gate, carrying signs that read: "Stop the Execution" and "No State Murder."
"The middle class doesn't have a voice anymore, so this is our voice," said Dennis Stefani, 62, of Danville, who said he postponed a fishing trip to protest. He said it's only right that all the evidence should be heard.
Robert English, 59, agreed.
"This time I think there was just an overwhelming need to have justice done," English said. "It seems pretty clear he's innocent."
What kind of test could they run that would prove that the evidence was PLANTED?
..there is no reason to hurry
Hurry..
didn't this happen in 1985?
claims the hair found in one of the victim's hands, if scientifically tested, would support his claims that a trio of murderers committed the savage attacks.
Now, how does this clown know this?
Did he see a trio of men run out of the house after the murder?
Maybe it was the one armed man. Sorry bozo, that one's already been used.
They chanted. They beat drums. They waved picket signs bearing the face of a black man who came very close Monday night to being put to death for the slayings of four people 20 years ago.
Ahh...Mike Farrell and the "forgiveness people". I have a special place for them too.
This hump will have his trial which will last about a year and be found guilty AGAIN. But then mandatory appeals start all over, and then after about seven MORE years when all the 'normal appeals' are exhausted he'll take it to SCOTUS again. His appeal will be under the guise that executing him after 27 years is Cruel and Unusual Punishment and as such, the sentence should be vacated and he be released for 'time served'!
And the SCOTUS will buy it!
I say that, as I believe it was 'Justice' Stevens who has already stated that executing someone after so many years pass IS bordering on cruel & unusual punishment - all that mental stress on the convicted killer don't ya know.
Wow its so hard to believe such an upstanding citizen could have done such a thing. /sarcasm
If the only possibiolities are "planted or he did it", then how can any DNA testing be conclusive, if the DNA is his either way?!?
"What this means is that for the very first time, one court and one neutral fact-finder can hear all of the evidence that the jury was not allowed to hear," said Cooper's attorney, Lanny Davis.
So any lower court's decisions to allow and bar certain evidence is meaningless? Every trial is to be appealed and every bit of prejudicial, non-probative, and/or irrelevant evidence is to be admitted?
Is anyone surprised that there's more doubt about his guilt or innocence now than there was twenty years ago?